EP: Lonely The Brave – Dust & Bones

Not even half a year has passed since Lonely The Brave‘s sophomore album hit the shelves, and we have yet another release from the Cambridge quintet. ‘Things Will Matter’ was (and still is) an Everest of an LP; a monumental yet brooding presence in the modern rock world that solidified Lonely The Brave as both musicians and artists. So, to follow it up so quickly with something as meagre and inconsequential as an EP seems not only pointless, but a quick cash-grab before the hashtags stop trending.

Out of the four tracks present on the ‘Dust & Bones’, one is from their previous album (also the title-track of this EP), two are original and found just on this EP, and the last is a cover of the Pink Floyd classic, ‘Comfortably Numb’.

The two original tracks featured here are certainly different from the notably heavier ‘Things Will Matter’ and are more upbeat, vibrant and (prepare to cringe) sunnier in sound. ‘Place Isn’t Lost’ still boasts the quintessential Lonely The Brave scream-your-lungs-out hooks coupled with the blissful, euphoric riffs that they’re known for, and, while ‘Bottled Time’ is a solid rock song that ticks all the right boxes, by the band’s astronomically high standards, it’s nothing more than filler, so the need to release it is somewhat puzzling.

Then there’s the cover, ‘Comfortably Numb’, which we can all agree is in safe hands with this gifted, gracious band. Sure, they pull it off, delivering a competent cover of a classic song. Although there’s little to no injection of their unique sound into the song; it’s pretty much just a beat for beat, copy/paste job, which in turn raises the question: why even bothering covering it in the first place, and why this song? For an EP you want something punchy with grit and vitriol, not a 6 minute plus, glacial, spacey anthem.

Two more original, well written, pleasing songs and a competent cover from a talented, accomplished band is nothing to complain about, but it’s hard to shake off the cynicism of the EP’s release in the first place.